Love Is....

Friday, October 31, 2014

I was so excited to make this for Heath. Kristin Schiff gave me this recipe for butternut squash homemade lasagna. I have never made lasagna before, but what could be better than homegrown butternut squash from our garden, fresh swiss chard, and fresh tomatoes? I even added beef! Anyway, it I thought it turned out really well.

Thursday, October 30, 2014

Tonight was my last day of the photography class at the college. I believe that the only reason that I got into this class at this time was to meet Michelle. It was an instant connection the first day of class and now I have a lifelong sister-in-Christ.

Lots going on at work, but it is still going well. I took the time few days during lunch to walk the Y.M.C.A. River Trail. I had to take advantage of this gorgeous weather God has provided and do something good for my body. It was WELL worth it. These are a few pictures I snapped with my iPhone.

Mom has joined Kristin in L.A. and they will be headed for Bali, Indonesia soon!

Wednesday, October 29, 2014

After work, I went for a walk on the Y.M.C.A. River Trail and then met up with Heath to go to supper with Connie and Ernie. Our regular Bible study was canceled, so we had a wonderful evening reconnecting with our Bible study leaders from before. We had excellent chili, fresh fruit and veggies, and some awesome chocolately dessert. Thank you Connie and Ernie for your continued support throughout the years. You are a blessing to us!

Monday, October 27, 2014

Heath had today off and he is SO a*m*a*z*i*n*g! While I was at work today he did the following: he got groceries and a new battery for our truck, stopped by to say hi to me at work, installed the truck battery, tried to fix our pellet stove, put laundry away, washed our sheets, put on clean sheets AND put on our *HEATED BLANKET* (=awesome!), made several horse shoe cross praying cowboys for orders, got our new bike stands set up in the barn, rode bikes with me when I got home, and had dinner ready for me after we were finished with our bike workout! Talk about an amazing man and one really luck girl!

Sunday, October 26, 2014

God has blessed me with a wonderful husband! We got a wild hair and decided to head to Cheyenne after church as a little relaxing and unwinding time. We loaded up the dogs to go to church with us so they could go with us on our roadtrip. After church, Garry asked if they could come out and hangout with him. We thought they might enjoy that. It is not that we didn't want them with us, but running around would be more fun than sitting in the car and way better than sitting at home waiting for us to get there. I love those dogs! They are such a part of our family.

We dropped the doggies off in Stegall and headed to Qdoba in Cheyenne. This is one of our favorite quick places to eat when in Cheyenne. We then headed over to the Bicycle Station to pick up my fixed bike! Yay! When we got there, they told us it was way under the quote and I even added in a new *bright* yellow helmet. (Definitely wanted to replace my old one, just in case I hit my head in the accident. I don't think I did, but wanted to be safe!)

Heath and I have been talking about starting to bike together and did so a bit this summer. Once winter hits, we thought it would be awesome to get the bike stands that you put your actual bike in up in the barn. Now that we have the roof on the barn and it is really taking shape, we decided that this would be our Christmas gift to each other. We got all the appropriate pieces to make it work for both of our bikes. He will be able to ride his mountain bike while I ride my road bike. So excited!

After this wonderful stop, we went to the mall. Heath calls it a gift for himself when he buys me something. You all know that I am not much of a shopper, but we sure do have fun when we do this. We don't do it very often, so I am learning to enjoy it. Somehow this trip we happened upon really pretty, fancy dresses. Heath was enjoying the model show and wanted to share the photos with my Mama, so he went all the way to the car to get my phone to take pictures. What a wonderful man!

Saturday, October 25, 2014

Garry and Barb were so nice to offer to 'man' a booth for us so that we could have a presence at both shows. How ironic that our first craft show would be a double-header. Thank you guys for helping and thank you Heath for all the work you put in to have items for both locations! Not knowing exactly what to expect, I would say that we had a great day as we were able to pay for both shows and spend time together.

Friday, October 24, 2014

Heath has been working super hard all week on building our inventory for our not ONE but TWO craft shows this Saturday! He has now introduced a beautiful praying cowboy line. My order of craft supplies came in, so I was able to make some Mason Jar soap dispensers.

We got to set up at the Elk's Lodge tonight so that will help make tomorrow morning go a bit smoother when we set up at the Discount Fireworks place. Barb and Garry came to help us get set up. Teamwork and we were done in no time at all. With a few odds n' ends that I will bring tomorrow, we were done for the evening and headed to Runza for some quick and yummy supper!

Tuesday, October 21, 2014

The Y.M.C.A. swimming pool has been closed down since August for complete renovations. I have been swimming at the Splash, but really excited and ready for the opening. It actually opened yesterday, but since Monday's are Heath's day off, so we usually sleep in and I either workout at night or take a rest day.

The new rennovations are awesome, totally worth the wait! Nemo and Friends are still there, but the white and blue combination really brightened the place up and makes it look alot bigger. So exciting! Pool is super clean and WOAH cold today. It takes a long time to heat up that much water. I ended up not being able to take it on today since my body is still sore from my bike accident. I went and lifted weights instead. I will try again later this week!

Monday, October 20, 2014

We got an email the other day asking for a photo with logoed clothing for the 21st Century flyer that goes out quarterly. I had one of the guys snap this for me in front of one of our GPS Valley Pivot panels.

Thursday, October 16, 2014

We have been preparing for weeks for the art show tonight. When I was teaching that safety class back in August, they were taking all the art from the previous year off the walls. I happened upon it at the right time because when I inquired about it, they told me they would introduce me to the Judy Amoo, the lady in charge. She was fantastic! She told me I was in perfect timing!

Tonight, as I was pulling into the Harms Center for our Art Reception and I got a call from Dad. “I am in Kimball!” We were expecting him Friday during the day, what an awesome surprise. I invited him up to the college to our show, but he was ready to get to the farm and be with the doggies.

The show went great! We had 5 pieces of art on the wall, three of my photos (two on metal-one matte and one shiny and one canvas) and two versions of horseshoe crosses. It was awesome! I had made invitations and mailed them out a few weeks earlier to invite people. It was a great turn out with several artists there! We had several people come out to support us! THANK YOU! :)

My handsome husband in front of one of our best selling crosses placed right by their
food court area in the college!

Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Our second day of the course went well. We finished up with a very nice lunch they provided. We ate and then had to make a rocket run to Cabela's headquarters, within viewing distance of our Sidney tractor store. It was perfect because Heath and I were just there and got a hammer extension for my new/used gun and it did not fit once we got it home. I was able to return it and order the correct part. I saw about half of the people n our class there! Great place! :) One of the mini bonuses of a meeting in Sidney, Nebraska.

I texted Frank on the way back and he said just to stay home, not to worry about coming back to work since there were only a few hours left in the day. He told me to make a nice supper for my husband. I agreed!

Being a beautiful day and since Heath was not home yet, I decided to take out my newly outfitted bike for a spin. Finally, a day with enough light. The days are noticeably getting shorter.

I set out 100% not sure where I wanted to go, how long I wanted to go, or when I would return other than that I wanted to make supper for Heath before Bible study. Turns out, I headed out on 92 towards town. As I was riding, I thought that maybe I would surprise Heath and be waiting for him where he parks his truck. As that thought was going through my head, I heard a strange sound behind me. It was another biker! This is probably one of the first times this has ever happened to me here in Western Nebraska.

This older gentleman was riding up to pass me on my left and we started chatting. During the small talk, I asked him if he had any advice (regarding biking). He simply replied, "Love God," "Get Enough Sleep," and "Eat Right." WOW! Not the advice I was asking for, but even better, a Christian man. He was super nice and not scary, so I decided to continue my ride with him. We took the overpass right before we arrived in Gering and headed south on 71 towards the Wildcat Hills. Beautiful day for a ride and lots of good conversation.

By the time we got to the top of the Wildcats, I was pretty sure I would super sore tomorrow. This was going to be the longest ride and fastest ride since surgery! As we approached the top of the Hill almost to the nature center at the top, I briefly looked over to listen to my new-found-friend and before I knew it, I was looking at the sky from the ground, bike nowhere to be seen. Yep, you guessed it, I flew off my bike which was now laying behind me as I quickly got to my feet and tried to piece together what just happened. My friend turned around and saw what had happened. I was shaking really bad and bleeding from my fingers. I told him I was fine and would just shake it off, but as I went to gather my bike, I realized that my front wheel had bent. This was God's way of saving me from making this situation worse by trying to ride back home. My friend told me that we could get me a ride home and started flagging down cars. (Great! What would Heath think of me hitch-hiking?!) Being on the highest point in Scotts Bluff County, there is no cell reception. I tried texting Heath to let him know what had just happened because I couldn't get my call to connect. I didn't want him to be scared, but to know what happened and that I was ok. He was just getting off work and headed home to get the truck to come collect all the pieces of his new bride.

Bent front wheel.

While we were waiting, my colleague's wife rode up the hill on her bike. I had not seen her in probably three and a half years. How ironic and awesome to see her again, even under these circumstances. I told her we would have to get together soon as I hugged her. About that time, my new-found-friend flagged a truck that went right on past and on down the hill. A few seconds later, here he had turned around and was headed back up the hill. He pulled over and guess what?! Believe it or not, I knew this man. He works at Schaefer's Elevator where I used to buy dog food. Wow, GOD IS GOOD! He offered to take me where ever I needed to go, telling me that he has had people help him in emergency biking situations in his past. What a great blessing to live in a small town. For those of you that know me, you know that I am not a hitch-hiking type person, so this all turned out better than could have been expected! I had him drop me off at a local corner and called Heath to tell him that he didn't have to go all the way out to the Wildcat Hills. While I was waiting, I got eaten absolutely alive by mosquitos. Heath arrived and I quickly got into the car to escape the bites as he loaded my bike on the bike rack...he brought my car with the rack on it.

As we headed towards home, we talked about my accident and assessed the damage to my body. All that I can think that happened was the inevitable when you put a skinny tire like mine off a 6 inch drop. Basically at this point, I have no idea what happened, but I was bleeding out of my thumb, ring finger, and I knew that I had not reinjured my hip, I had not hit my head, broken any ribs or anything else for that matter. I was surrounded by angels as I could have flown off the other side and been run over by passing cars and trucks. About home, we had yet another accident. My bike decided not to stay on the rack and took a tumble at 65 mph! Ooooh some more damage but material things can be fixed and luckily, I can heal!

Tuesday, October 14, 2014

I got asked to attend a 10-Hour O.S.H.A. course in Sidney, Nebraska today. I headed down with Matt, our main safety coordinator for 21st Century Water Technologies. We went down to our 21st Century John Deere tractor store. This was an excellent opportunity for us to meet up with other safety representatives from the other 21st stores. Matt and I are the only ones to represent the "Water" side of the business, everyone else was representing one of the other 15 "Tractor" stores. 21st Century reaches into Colorado and we have stores all over Western Nebraska with the purchase of several new stores in the past couple of years. I am very excited to be a part of a growing, technically advanced agricultural organization. I am very thankful for my job!

This is a two day course which will help us prepare for our quarterly regional safety meeting on November 20th, 2014. All the North region stores will send their two safety representatives to our place this time for an inspection. They rotate locations throughout the year so that everyone can get a fresh perspective and see how other stores do certain things. This is a very helpful approach as questions arise constantly when it comes to the ever changing world of safety regulations.

Monday, October 13, 2014

Long story short, a couple from church asked us if we would like to adopt some birds. A gentleman they knew had to move to Cheyenne to be closer to town and he had quite a few birds that needed a new home. This gentleman has several chickens, a few guineas, and a peacock. A PEACOCK?! W*h*a*t do we do with that!? With big hearts for animals and really liking fresh eggs, we decided to weigh the pros and cons of adding birds to our already happy and settled two bird chicken flock.

You should have heard some of the questions and comments Heath and I discussed when approached with this offer . Interesting to say the least!

“How long do peacocks live?”

“What do you call a female peacock?”

“I have heard that peacocks make quite a mess. Is that true?”

“What kind of noises to peacocks make?”

“Are we getting roosters or all hens?”

“Does a guinea keep away rattlesnakes?”

“Can you eat guinea eggs?”

It was quite an interesting conversation and with very little knowledge, we did some research! P.S. ~Domestic peacocks live to be 27 years old on average!

While I was at work, Dad and Heath went to get our newly adopted feathered friends. We added to our own two chicken flock: 9 chickens, 3 guineas, and 1 peacock. What a combination!

Better photos to come, this is the best I could get right now. They willbe in pen for a few days until they get used to their new home. They will also be separated from our girls until they get usedto each other.

Danny, Dad, and Heath were all working on Penney’s fence in the corral when I got home. She has been leaning over the fence to much on some hay that we put there this summer. She really enjoys her snacks. This is life on the farm.

Saturday, October 11, 2014

Finally, our long awaited Diabetes Class in Longmont, Colorado. Heath’s endocrinologies nurses put on courses throughout the year to teach you and your ‘caregiver’ how to take care of diabetes. A beautiful fall morning we headed down to Colorado and we were greeted by the nice lady who was teaching the class. She was impressed we came all the way from Nebraska. Little does she know Heath has to drive down every quarter and get his blood drawn a week or two before his actual doctor’s appointment. He is very dedicated which is one of many qualities I love about him.

Tree row right outside the Longmont Clinic ~ BEAUTIFUL!

My Daddy decided to come help us work on the barn and babysit our furry and feathered friends.